Statistics of Titles of Writers in 17th Century Temple Steles in Some Suburban Districts of Hanoi

Tin) was composed by two monks Vu Khac Minh and Vu Khac Truong, such as the stele erected in the year Duong Hoa 5 (1639) which states: "The abbot of Gia Phuc commune pagoda is monk Vu Khac Truong, whose given name is Dao Tam" and when they passed away, they were revered by the villagers, elected by Hau and currently these two monks are worshiped in the pagoda.

Thus, many people who wrote inscriptions on stone steles did not only pass the calligraphy examination. On the other hand, was this also a form of promoting the prestige of each class of people in society at that time? That was a special feature of 17th century steles.

Thus, through some 17th century pagoda steles, it was confirmed that the people who participated in writing the words on the steles were mainly low-ranking officials such as Tien Cong Thu Lang, Phu Sinh, Chanh Doi Truong, Tham Tri Giam Su... There was no Doctor or a mandarin in charge of ministries or offices participating as in the section of the steles' editors. That is a pity, if we knew that the Mandarins not only wrote the words for the steles but also gave them the words, it would be interesting.

2.1.3. Stone engraver:

In the process of creating a text engraved on a stone stele, the engraver's association is usually recorded at the end of the stele text, after the date of creation of the stele. However, among the 17th century stone steles that we have collected, there are steles that only record the composer and the writer. Rarely, there are steles that record the engraver's association but omit the composer of the stele text and the writer.

The stone carver did the final operation but was the one who directly created a complete stone stele with text content and decorative patterns. However, the talent in carving each stroke of the letters and decorative patterns of the craftsman in these cases was not highly appreciated as the class of scholars who composed and wrote the letters, so their names were rarely mentioned in the stele inscription. This is because

This proves their inferior status compared to the class of people who composed the epitaphs and wrote the words on the steles.

During the Ly, Tran, and Le dynasties, the team of stone steles was mainly made up of professional workers of the State, which demonstrated the authority and oppression of the royal court to the local villages. In the 16th century: “The steles carved by state workers were mainly Le steles in the early part of the century, including tomb steles, kings, mandarins, and the aristocracy of the Le dynasty, and doctoral steles at the National Academy... These were “state” steles, so the method and content of the stele text all followed the strict regulations of the royal court. The steles were generally very majestic, green in color, and smooth in stone. The stele forehead was large, on average 1.4m x 0.7m; there were stele sizes of 2.5m x 1.6m such as the tomb stele of Tuc Tong in Lam Kinh ” [54; p.15]. The Mac dynasty stele engravers: “ were not state workers but were completely professional folk workers ” [55; p.16].

Of the total 29 stone steles, only 3 record the name of the engraver. Of these, 2 were carved by the court craftsmen "Tan tao Ba A tu bi" erected in Vinh To 2 (1620) which clearly recorded the name, position and hometown of the engraver: "Don phu Nguyen Thien Tich, District Chief of Giao Thuy district, from Dai Ang village, Thanh Tri district, Thuong Tin prefecture, carved the stele". But the "Dai Bi tu" stele at Boi Khe pagoda - Thanh Oai erected in Vinh To 11 (1629) only recorded the position and name, not the hometown of the engraver: "Cong tuong Trinh Thien Tich carved, Thach tuong Kieu Thai and his wife Nguyen Thi Hoc".

The two steles above were made by professional workers managed by the state, who worked in state agencies specializing in stone carving. They had specific positions and workplaces such as the Stone Statue Department and the Jade Department. The steles were generally very large, and the manner and content of the stele inscriptions all followed strict regulations.

In addition, there is only 01 stele carved by folk craftsmen who can carve stone steles in the region or in other regions such as " Nguyen The, Nguyen Loi and Ngo".

Van Lam, Tu Tram commune, Ninh Son district" engraved stele " Tam quan bi " Boi Khe pagoda - Thanh Oai year Hoang Dinh 4 (1604).

With the majority of 17th century pagoda stone steles (25/29 steles) in some suburban districts of Hanoi not having the names of the engravers, this also shows that most villages used ordinary workers in their own locality to engrave stone steles. These workers, perhaps not having enough prestige to form a guild of workers, therefore their names were not engraved on the steles. It is also possible that due to the concept of only valuing educated people, the "unknown" workers with little education, who came from common people, and did not reach a high level of technical skills were not allowed to be named on the steles by the officials and village dignitaries...

2.2. Materials used to make beer:

If in the Early Le and Mac dynasties: “The stone steles of the Mac dynasties were often ivory in color, taken from the Duong Nham mountain stone source, Hiep Son district (Hai Duong), different from the green stone of the early Le dynasties, taken from the An Hoach stone source, Dong Son district, Thanh Hoa. The size of the Mac dynasties’ stele was moderate, averaging 0.6m x 0.9m” 9 [54, p. 12], then in the 17th century, through a survey of 29 stone steles, it was shown that the materials used to create the stone steles

not following any standards. One thing that can be seen is that the stone source of the 17th century has its own characteristics and is not regional like the Le So period (mainly taken from the stone source of An Hoach - Thanh Hoa), the Mac period took from the stone source of Duong Nham mountain - Hai Duong)...

In the 17th century, people mainly took advantage of local stone resources. In some regions with developed economies or many famous people, doctors, etc., the state-managed team of professional workers could transport stone from other places because there was none locally. Therefore, the main materials used to create stone steles during this period included emery stone (basalt), a type of stone with a color

9 Although the An Hoach stone is large, the Mac stele could not be used because Thanh Hoa was under the control of the Le dynasty.

gray or black (like Thay Pagoda stele - Quoc Oai, Huong Pagoda - My Duc) ... ; or sandstone (sandstone) with diverse colors such as gray, yellow,

blue and white (like Mui Pagoda stele - Thuong Tin, So Pagoda stele - Thanh Oai, Mia Pagoda - Son Tay)... or limestone (often mixed with impurities) with colors ranging from white to ash, light blue, yellow and even black...

Thus, the stone materials mainly used to make steles in the 17th century included emery stone, sandstone, limestone... exploited from many different sources.

2.3. Characteristics of 17th century stone stele

2.3.1. Classification of stone steles:

In fact, during the survey of some pagodas built in the 17th century in some districts such as Thuong Tin, Thanh Oai, My Duc, Chuong My, Quoc Oai, Thach That, some stone steles carry historical values, decorative sculptures (from the time of Hoang Dinh, Vinh To to the time of Chinh Hoa) and have many different shapes and sizes. Therefore, it can be affirmed that the 17th century stone steles do not have any standards regulating the size when creating stone steles in this period, because the form and content of the stele are often determined by the merit of the person who erected the stele, the level of the stele erection event, the type of stone used to make the stele, the person who composed the stele text and the stone carver... Therefore, there are many ways to classify the 17th century stone steles in pagodas in this period, some researchers can classify the stele according to the structure (form

flat beer, block beer, cylindrical beer , etc. ); or classify beer by each beer surface (beer 1

face, 2-sided beer, 4-sided beer … ); classify beer according to the type of beer with base and beer without base

have a base; some people also classify steles according to the content of the inscription (steles recording the creation and restoration of relics and post-Buddhist steles...); or classify steles according to the carving object (steles carved by professional craftsmen and steles carved by amateur craftsmen in villages)...

Thus, there are many ways to classify stone steles of this period, however, some classifications will overlap in shape such as classifying steles according to each type of relic, according to the content of the stele, or the structure of the stele, or the carved object... Therefore, to see the most general overview of the 17th century stone steles,

We classify the stone steles of this period according to the form of the stele face (1-sided stele, 2-sided stele, 4-sided stele ... in which each type of stele has small divisions to suit

suitable for the shape of the beer). Although this classification is only relative.

- Single-sided stele: Single-sided stele has a similar shape to double-sided stele, because people only pay attention to the front of the stone stele with carved patterns and the content of the stele, while the back is left blank (some stele are left rough, but some are polished smooth) like some ghost chewing stele at Thay Pagoda (Quoc Oai).

The height of a single-sided stele is similar to that of a double-sided stele, averaging from 0.8m to 1.0m; the average width is from 0.5m to 0.7m. In which, the stele forehead has an average size of 0.2m to 0.3m. Therefore, the height ratio of the two-sided stele forehead is on average 1/4 of the height of the entire stele. The name of the stele is engraved under the stele forehead, averaging from 0.04m to 0.06m, many stele have decorative borders. The border of the stele depends on the size of the stele, large or small, to have a border that matches the stele forehead and the stele foot, but on average the border of the stele is from 0.05m to 0.07m wide and has an average thickness of 0.1m to 0.2m. The base of some steles is in the shape of a turtle carrying a stele. The average size of the turtle carrying a stele depends on the size of the stele, from 1.0m - 1.5m in length; from 0.6m -

0.9m. In addition, some steles without bases are buried in the floor, yard or attached to the wall ...

Thus, the single-sided stele was not a common form of the 17th century. In terms of shape, it has many similarities with the double-sided stele, but only the front side is engraved with content, leaving the back side blank.